Jeff Lisandro Wins WSOPE Bracelet

Posted at 00:24 2010-09-20

Jeff Lisandro: Best Australia Has Ever Seen?

If you have any interest in poker it will most likely not be a surprise to hear that the one and only Jeff Lisandro has found success yet again, taking down his fifth WSOP bracelet earlier today at the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe. This further solidifies Lisandro in elite company amongst the greatest poker players to have ever sat on the poker felt.

Widely considered one of the best cash game players in the world, Lisandro has four bracelets all coming in stud variations, so it is in that game that he is feared by all. With his new bracelet coming in a Pot-Limit Omaha event, opponents now find themselves with more reasons to fear the Australian-born champion.

The second event at this year’s World Series of Poker Europe would house an elite 120 players, each dishing out £5,250 for their chance to take home a bracelet.

Players who came and went early in the event included Barry Greenstein, Huck Seed, Andy Bloch, Michael Mizrachi, Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey just to name a few.

The event started its third and final day at the Empire Casino in the heart of London’s West End with 15 players returning with the hopes of taking home the coveted WSOPE bracelet and a nice bit of cash to go with it.

Notable players and previous bracelet winners would be rife throughout the returning field with the likes of Steve Jelinek, Jeff Madsen, Willie Tann, Chris Bjorin, John Racener, Erik Friberg and Joe Serock all standing as tough obstacles for Lisandro to weave his through.

All the action would be seen over at Madsen’s table, with the young gun sending the first three eliminations of the day to the rail. Play would be a little slower over at Lisandro’s table.

When the tournament dwindled down to ten players the tournament director would call the final table and Lisandro would have a stack of 173,000, while Serock, Racener and Madsen all held over 250,000.

The first two eliminations at the final table would be bracelet winning veteran Chris Bjorin and Jeff Kimber, with both their demises coming at the hands of Lisandro. A sign of things to come!

The final six saw Lisandro with a monster stack of 580,000 with his closest threat Serock at 345,000 and over the next few hours, one by one, players would start heading to the rail while Lisandro and Serock continued their dominance.

After more than 12 hours of play at the final table, heads-up play would finally commence with Lisandro hungry to overrun his opponent Serock.

The young player, who was originally noticed for his strikingly similar name to Barry Greenstein’s popular poker player son, Joe Sebok, proved he was more than a name, with deep runs in several events at the last few WSOP’s including a runner-up finish at the 2009 6-max event for $341,783.

Heads-up play would see Serock with an almost 3-1 chip lead, but Lisandro would not go down without a fight. No one single big hand would see Lisandro chip-up but instead clever play over several small hands.

With his first chip lead at the final table, it would be no looking back for Lisandro, and after hitting a set of kings and out manoeuvring Serock, Lisandro would have a massive chip-lead and it would be all but the over.

The last hand of the night saw a crippled Serock be almost forced to move all-in with any four cards. After a flop ran out blanks and Lisandro managed to dodge all of his opponents straight draws, it would be to the rail in second place for Serock.

With that, Jeff Lisandro took home his much deserved fifth WSOP bracelet against a small but unbelievably tough field.

Taking home his fifth WSOP bracelet, Lisandro deserves to be considered one of the best players in all of the world. So does that make him the best Australian born player we have ever seen? Well if he continues his dominance of the past few years, he may just be able to put that argument well and truly to rest.

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